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CinemaSerf

Jul 5, 2026

7.0

“I’m sorry Brad from America but I’m too beautiful for you… Do you want one more kiss before you go?”. There's quite a bit of humour contained withing this touching short feature about a gent and his eight year old son. They are clearly very fond of each other and so when "Lado" (Ladislav Ondrej) asks his dad (Vladimir Javorsky) if he can accompany him to work next day - and have hot chocolate, too, he readily agrees. Duly picking him up from school on a cold afternoon, they head out of town on the tram then walk through some woods to a railway bridge over the river - where his dad works. The train isn't due for an hour so he leaves the lad to fish in the river and sets off to carry out his duties. "Lado" spots an unexpected ship approaching and rushes to inform his dad that it and the train are likely to arrive at the bridge at the same time. That's when a tragedy occurs that puts this now tormented man in an impossible situation that leaves him with an unenviable choice. Now there are certainly some issues with the production and director Bobby Garabedian has played a little fast and loose with the timelines and look of this film, but that doesn't matter so much as the story of affection and subsequent distress is really quite poignantly delivered by Javorsky and especially by the engagingly mischievous Ondrej and the denouement, though profoundly sad, still manages to emanate just a little sense of hope of there yet being better corners to be turned for this man - in time. As to it's Christian roots, some may find this a validation of God's love, but I've always found him/her to be a rather cruel individual constantly requiring horrendous sacrifices at proof of our love and it's almost always the innocent who are required to play ball leaving those remaining psychologically scarred. For my money, this is better taken on a less dogmatic face value as a man has to weigh up the least bad of two apalling options and consider what we might do in similar circumstances.